Perspective: The Media Meltdown

You know, the longer you live and the more disasters you see, the more you realize, ladies and gentlemen, that almost, and it’s very close, an almost equally important part of the story is the media. It really is. The media’s getting really ticked off. Why aren’t the Japanese panicking? Why aren’t there any looters? There are actually stories about this. Of course it is interesting that the Japanese are not looting, and in fact evil Japanese businessmen are lowering prices on commodities and in some cases even giving things away to aggrieved citizens.

I actually heard a CNN reporter ask, hopefully, “Is there widespread looting going on?” These people are looking for disaster. They want disaster upon disaster. They want the nuclear meltdown. They want the Japanese syndrome, if you will. They want this stuff. A friend of mine, ladies and gentlemen, is in the business of the film arts, otherwise movies. And he tells me that he once had a movie director who used to say all the time, “Do not be afraid because fear kills.” And I have to wonder if you look at the coverage here if this isn’t what he had in mind. This is just the wanton spreading of fear. When in fact most of these nuclear reactors in Japan are behaving as designed. They are containing. There’s not this widespread disaster.